Nels Johnson NESSA

   Other names for Nels were Nels JOHNSON, Nils JOHNSON and Niels Johansen NAESSE.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Alt. Birth, 15 Oct 1830, Norway. from death record

• Immigration: from Norway, 1849, America. 71925 Stavanger 1849 14266 Nils Johnson Nessa M 1849 Årdal NORGE 1 SE KORT

[Emigranter fra Stavanger 1825-1970]

• Immigration: from Norway, 1850, America. leaving Årdal, Hjelmeland 17 Apr 1850...
1. ungk. Niels Johns Næssa, 19 3/4
2. pign Maria Torstensd Riskadal, 24 1/2

[#1-2, p177rhs, 1850, Årdal in Hjelmeland 1842-1861]

• Reference: History of Fillmore County, 1882, Fillmore County, Minnesota, USA. The Nessa or Tawney School, School District No. 9.
"District No. 9. This appears to have been the second one organized. In 1859, a log house was built, 14x16 feet, near the home of Nils Johnson. The school was opened by Mrs. Cameron of Hesper, Iowa. In 1878 a new schoolhouse was put on a site further north than the old one, and on section twenty-one."

[Page 431 of the 1882 History of Fillmore Co.]

• Reference: History of Fillmore County Minnesota, 1882, Fillmore County, Minnesota, USA. PREBLE TOWNSHIP, p429

EARLY SETTLEMENT
The first white men that settled with the present limits of Preble were Nelson Johnson "Ness" and Thore Olsen "Faae," natives of Stavanger, Norway, who, comming to America in 1849, stopped in LaSalle county, Illinois, and in 1853, removed to Minnesota and located in section thirty-three in this town. The property brought with them consisted of three yoke of oxen and a few head of other horned stock, two old ricketty lumber wagons, and a small amount of family goods.

They at once built a double tenement residence, each with a single apartment 10x12 feet, and covered it with bass wood bark, no floors or carpets graced their new abode. These two men with their families, seven in all, dwelt in this hut for four months, when they succeeded in securing better quarters. The first year ten acres were broken up on the Newburg side of the line, and the following year Mr. Johnson commenced to cultivate his present farm in section twenty-two in the town of Preble, thus he was in the first man to sow and reap a crop in the town.

Nels married Maria Torsteindatter RISKEDAL on 9 Aug 1850 in LaSalle County, Illinois, USA.¹ (Maria Torsteindatter RISKEDAL was born on 14 Nov 1825 in Hjelmeland, Rogaland, Norway, baptized on 1 Jan 1826 in Årdal, Hjelmeland, Rogaland, Norway and died between 1895 and 1900 in Minnesota, USA.)

Nels next married Inger Kristine Olsdatter NERSTAD, daughter of Ole Olsen NERSTAD and Elna Olsdatter NORBEK, on 10 Jan 1901 in Fillmore County, Minnesota, USA.² (Inger Kristine Olsdatter NERSTAD was born on 4 Apr 1865 in Norderhov, Buskerud, Norway and died on 4 Jul 1954 in Fillmore County, Minnesota, USA ⁵.)